England’s Immigrants 1330 – 1550 Resident Aliens in the Late Middle Ages

The North

Cumberland, Westmorland, Northumberland, Yorkshire, Lancashire

The early tax assessments for the northern counties are relatively full and detailed, and not surprisingly are dominated by Scots, many of whom were probably migrant workers or servants, and many of which were women. However, others did venture to this part of England, including various people from the Low Countries in Newcastle, and a number of Icelanders in Hull. Good returns survive for Yorkshire and the border counties survive, although Hull appears to have escaped the first year of the tax entirely, and the officials in Lancashire seem to have treated the whole process with contempt! However, the returns soon deteriorated, with fewer people assessed, less care being taken over the administration (particularly in Yorkshire), and assessment in the border counties was eventually farmed out to private individuals. Durham and Cheshire, being palatine counties and outside the system of parliamentary taxation, were not assessed.

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England’s Immigrants 1330 – 1550 (www.englandsimmigrants.com, version 1.0, 28 March 2024), http://www.englandsimmigrants.com/page/sources/alien-subsidies/the-north